Hulst Liesbeth, Akkermans Arno J
Psychol Inj Law. 2011 Dec;4(3-4):245-262. doi: 10.1007/s12207-011-9110-7. Epub 2011 Nov 24.
Legal systems differ markedly on how they treat the emotional harm suffered by close family members of crime or accident victims. This paper reports the results of two empirical studies examining how citizens whose child, partner, or parent was killed or seriously injured as a result of violent crime or tort (secondary victims) perceive a monetary award for their own non-economic harm relating to the death or injury of their loved one. The objective of our research was to test the Dutch legislator's assumption that a (modest) monetary award for secondary victims' emotional harm can have a meaningful symbolic value by providing recognition and satisfaction. Until then, no compensation was available for such harm under Dutch law. In addition, we examined whether victims' relatives preferred standardization or individuation in determining the amount of the award, how they evaluated the amount, and the manner in which such awards might be offered. In a first quantitative survey study conducted in the Netherlands, 726 secondary victims were asked for their evaluations of such awards for the emotional harm they suffered as a result of the death or injury of their family member. We also asked our representative sample about their actual experience of the legal process in order to put their evaluations of such awards into context. In a second qualitative study, conducted in Belgium, interviews were held with 14 secondary victims who had actually received an award for their own emotional harm under Belgian law (study 2). Results suggest that secondary victims regard an award for emotional harm as a positive gesture and may interpret it as helping to satisfy relatives' psychological concerns by seeing it, for example, as an acknowledgment of loss and responsibility. Overall findings suggest that victims' relatives may be seeking acknowledgement of their emotional losses and the norm violation.
法律体系在对待犯罪或事故受害者近亲所遭受的情感伤害方面存在显著差异。本文报告了两项实证研究的结果，这些研究考察了那些因暴力犯罪或侵权行为导致其子女、伴侣或父母死亡或重伤的公民（二级受害者）如何看待针对他们因亲人死亡或受伤而遭受的非经济伤害给予的金钱赔偿。我们研究的目的是检验荷兰立法者的假设，即对二级受害者的情感伤害给予（适度的）金钱赔偿，通过提供认可和满足感，可以具有有意义的象征价值。在此之前，根据荷兰法律，此类伤害无法获得赔偿。此外，我们还研究了受害者亲属在确定赔偿金额时是倾向于标准化还是个性化，他们如何评估赔偿金额，以及提供此类赔偿的方式。在荷兰进行的第一项定量调查研究中，726名二级受害者被要求对因家庭成员死亡或受伤而遭受的情感伤害赔偿进行评估。我们还询问了我们具有代表性的样本关于他们在法律程序中的实际经历，以便将他们对这类赔偿的评估置于背景之中。在第二项定性研究中，在比利时进行，我们采访了14名根据比利时法律实际因自身情感伤害获得赔偿的二级受害者（研究2）。结果表明，二级受害者将情感伤害赔偿视为一种积极的姿态，并可能将其解释为有助于通过例如将其视为对损失和责任的承认来满足亲属的心理关切。总体研究结果表明，受害者亲属可能在寻求对他们情感损失和规范违反行为的承认。
